Oh hail, I’m tired…

From all my research on resting (or more specifically, sleeping) the night before a big run, I found that the experts agree: If you can’t sleep, at least try not to toss and turn. The act of conserving your energy will result in a rested body, and the next day’s run will not suffer.

Last night, Mother Nature thought it was the perfect time for me to test the theory. I swear, she’s grating on my last nerve. While I slept intermittedly and rested without tossing and turning in the awake moments, she pulled a fasty and sent whipping rains and hail. Hail, at 3:30 a.m.! Since when does it hail in the wee hours of the morning?

Remember, I hail (yes, I think I’m clever) from San Angelo. Tornado warnings abound there. And here’s what I remember about bad weather: hail preceeds tornados. Well, first hail, then a dramatic calming of the Wizard of Oz winds and then TORNADO!

As I was awakened by the pounding rain, I realized it wasn’t the rain that was pounding, it was hail. I jumped from the bed, smacked Husband awake, yelled “HAIL!” and stumbled to the TV to turn on the Weather Channel. The radar showed a red blob right over my house, yet surprisingly no tornado alerts. To be safe, I rode the storm out.

I climbed back into bed 45 minutes later and tried to remember the experts’ advice: No tossing, no turning. Just fervent listening for the tornado I just knew was coming to blow a hole in my training, not to mention my house.

Cut to 6 a.m. and my alarm startling me awake. I had an hour to get up and start my run. And let me tell you, I was tired. I am still tired. I wll continue to be tired until bedtime.

But, a-ha! (You knew a but was coming, right?) My run went fine. I actually knocked off a few seconds from my normal time. The experts in the field apparently know what they are talking about.

Obviously, I am not an expert on these things; bags of delicous, tiny, white powdered donuts are my field. The advice seemed counter to what I thought would be true. I didn’t like testing the theory, but now that I have, I won’t worry so much about not sleeping a full eight hours before a big run.

As a rookie marathoner, I am finding that advice from those in the know is welcome, even if I scoff at first. The expert advice took the sting out of my hail-ish night.

Now, who among the seasoned runners out there has a junk food theory that improves training efforts that I can put to the test?